The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-07-09


 diana. Iowa, Texas and Michigan, Seixing and attempting to control, ac- cording to their crazy notions, these gigantic institutions and interests The periition- racScl ingenuity af the devil, the father of most of our poli- ties and politicians, never devised a madder combination of presumption and folly. IL is another outburst of the old grange rabies that, in iS70-Ti-73, undertook to run railroads by the legislative enactments of plowmen and hog -droverS, and speedily put nearly halt the railroads of the Union into receivers' hands, precipitated the panic of 1873, and drove the whole country into bankruptcy and ruin, from which 1t took years to rccover The nation may we'll thank God that the latest fools masterpiece k des- tined to perish beneath the weight ot its own fooleries.
 Under the close and skilltul man. agement of men of ability, who have given their whole lives to the business the railways of the country, out of aggregate earnings of nearly $S0o.- ooo, ,eee a year, do not average a profit of 3 per cent. per annum on the capi- tai invested in them. In iSS5, the excess of available revenue over actual payments of operating expenses. in- tercst and dividends. was but $2,St7,- 2ls, for the entire railway system of the | nitcd States. and the total of the dividends paid was less than per cent, upon ti,r capital How much inter ference and dictation of cheap john aenagagues and hlAth"rskitcs, many of whom never saw a hundcd-dollar bin in their lives until they got into congress, will bc required to unscttle this delicate balance, wipe out these narrow margins, and plunge the whole republic, by the railroad route, at n lightning -eNpress rate, into panic and disaster again.
 The railways employ about i3o,ooo men, ot whom over 7a.ouO are trained and skilled in the profession. some 2a,0uo being expert clerks and ac- countants. Many of these men are paid salaries of irom ~lo.t .too to $2a.- GOO q year. Yet this idiotic and mon strou~ bill requires committee oi five old hack politicians. with one S3,1o9a- year clerk. to supervise, eN- anime and manage volume ot husi- ness. which gives constant employ ment. ten hours day, to nearly half million men, thousands ot them ex- perts \ committee was appointed. some time ago. to investigate the coll duct and affairs of the Union Pacific road. The investigators went L" Omaha, began operations, called for additional clerical force. worked about six months, and did not get through one months business of the road The business of any one great railroad general office would give n score of congressional examining committees work enough to last them until con grcss becomes a seisibir and states mnnlkc body--that k probably to all eternity The commission created by this Hc- pi0s-U Uit,d of asininity will require at least 10000 trained clerks 10 make any serious attempt at dis
 
 Sloo,oo0 year, appropriated to pay it's expenses, will have to be increased to S50 .0O0 900.
 No two commissioners can ever, by any possibility. agree as to the intent or meaning ot it's inconsistent and in some instances contradictory provis- ions, and it k morally certain that not 4 muses who voted for it, understood that Ii would shut off their own sup plies of deaihcad passes. How many of the western congressman who sup ported it, appreciated the fact that, If the monstrosity were ever rigidly en- forced, 1t would absolutely exclude all western products from the seaboard markets? The wheat and corn and hay of Kansas, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, would not be worth shipment to New York or Baltimore, at the rates charged Pennsy lvania, Virginia and New York farmers and stockraisers and yet those rates are, as required by the common law, treas onabIe and just" The railways would either have to put up their tariffs on such long hauls to rates that would he prohibitory, or they would have 10 carry such short haul freights for less than enough to pay for the grease on the axlcs of their freight-car wheels.
 It would bc easy to fill columns Of space with the monstrosities, prepos- terosities and ludicrosities of this mad-house bill; but why pal tieularize further the faults of a thing that is wholly faulty! Why continue to point out the individual follies and iBigulties of 4 measure which is but A huge combined iniquity and follyy It will fail of enforcement, because Its enforcement l. impossible, and the cotinfry Ia tn ls. cnnOrafttIafed uf..,,